Outside Madison Square Garden in Midtown Manhattan, the streets early Sunday afternoon were a sea of red, white and blue, as a line of people wound around the block. Some had been there since Saturday morning for former President Donald J. Trump’s campaign rally, scheduled for 5 p.m. today.
On the side of the Garden, a screen several stories high showed a behemoth Trump astride skyscrapers, pointing uptown, beside the words “Dream Big Again!”
Vendors did a brisk business in “Make America Great Again” ball caps. Members of a pro-Trump Jewish group threw arms around each other’s shoulders and sang a prayer in Hebrew. Some of Mr. Trump’s more enthusiastic supporters predicted a red tsunami so huge that it could engulf even New York, where the former president is behind in the polls by about 15 percentage points. In New York City, he trails among likely voters by 39 percentage points.
Gregory Lamb, 27, from the Westchester County suburb of Mamaroneck, N.Y., and his father weaved through the thick crowd to get to the front of a “special guest” line. Mr. Lamb had gotten tickets through a connection in the Trump campaign after volunteering to be a poll watcher.
“Kamala said during the debate that people don’t show up to Trump’s rallies, and that people are always bored and want to leave,” Mr. Lamb said. “I wanted to show her that we show up — and look how many people are around. We’re here and we’re not going anywhere.”
Though registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans in Manhattan by about 10 to 1, there did not seem to be a significant number of counterprotesters a few hours before the rally was set to begin. Near the corner of 33rd Street and Eighth Avenue, about four people waved anti-Trump flags, including one that said: “Don the felon.”
Nadine Seiler, who rode a bus weekly to New York from Maryland to demonstrate outside Mr. Trump’s criminal trial earlier this year, was back on Sunday, this time outside the Garden. But she sounded weary.
“This is New York City; there’s no way these people should outnumber us,” said Ms. Seiler, 59, looking at the MAGA crowd.
She held a sign that read, “Trump Should Be in Prison Now.” She had made it for her last visit to New York, on July 11, when Mr. Trump was initially scheduled to be sentenced after his felony convictions.
The people in the pro-Trump crowd came from far and wide. In addition to some arriving from Long Island and Queens, there were also visitors from Orlando, Fla.; Charleston, S.C.; and Arlington, Va., as well as a large New Jersey contingent and some from Connecticut.
One supporter from New York City, Randy Ireland, 50, said he was often met with negative comments when he wore his MAGA hat in his neighborhood, Long Island City in Queens.
Mr. Ireland, an Air Force veteran, said he was worried about the possibility of increased crime because of the recent influx of migrants, some of whom are staying in homeless shelters in the area where he lives.
He mentioned the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, which has made inroads in New York City and is one of Mr. Trump’s frequent talking points in his attacks on the Biden administration’s immigration policies. The police say gang members have been snatching cellphones and robbing high-end department stores.
Mr. Ireland expressed sympathy for migrants who come to the United States for a better life but said that when it comes to illegal immigration, “There needs to be some accountability in Washington for how it affects the rest of us.”
On a New Jersey Transit train rumbling up the Jersey Shore toward Penn Station in New York, Danielle Roman, 26, a nursing student, headed to the rally. She said that she believed Mr. Trump was a better advocate for women than Vice President Kamala Harris, including on the issue of abortion.
“He wants to leave it up to the states, which I agree with,” she said.
At Penn Station, just downstairs from Madison Square Garden, Julie Campo and her two teenage daughters arrived from Long Island, bearing their rally tickets and wearing black Trump T-shirts.
“We do everything as a family,” Ms. Campo said, “and I’m excited that they’re excited.”
The area around Madison Square Garden was closed to the general public on Sunday, the police said.
Some New Yorkers who had not anticipated the crowd seemed mystified.
Adam Jackson, a bartender from the Bronx, stepped out of the subway and froze upon seeing thousands of Trump fans filling the street corner.
“It’s jarring,” said Mr. Jackson, 24. “Why? Why?”
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